Things To Keep In Mind When Planning To Do eLearning For The First Time

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin

We cannot deny the fact that learning comes with engagement with the learner. Today, unlike conventional classroom teaching methods, rapid progress in technology has brought learning close to learners. With the introduction of computers at first, followed by mobile devices and tablets, people are hooked to these gadgets most of the time. With books now replaced with electronic educational material on the Internet, these mobile devices now have an important place in the learning process.

eLearning is attracting learners from across the globe owing to its numerous benefits. However, not all are aware that understanding the value of eLearning can help you make better decisions about when and why to use it. Here are some benefits that you must know:

• Improved training costs – Creating educational material for learning involves time and effort for both, online and offline training. With each user taking the online course, eLearning helps you measure your ROI and it improves as the number of users increase. Not only are your production costs divided by the number of users, it also adds to savings through reduced travel and logistical costs, while improving the efficiency of your learners.
• Increased productivity – eLearning gives you control over the impact of your training on production. This is possible because it allows you to train people during down time without being bound by geography or time zones. Hence, eLearning contributes in a great way to providing learners with the required tools and skills required to enhance their performance.
• Standardization – eLearning allows you to create standardized processes and learning material that is delivered to learners across the globe with the same level of efficiency, unlike offline training. This also ensures that the delivery time is reduced.
• Knowledge management – eLearning is far beyond just authored courses. It includes the use of numerous online technologies. These tools which allow collaboration and conversations can be of great advantage to capture organizational knowledge, making it available for future learners as well.
• Improved retention – eLearning transforms training into a more engaging and rich experience with the help of multimedia and instructional design. The good part is that it can be repeated. With the addition of good activities along with feedback, learners are able to retain course content thus leading to improved results in their performances.
• Real-time access – eLearning does not require learners to align their schedule to get trained. eLearning courses can be accessed at any given point, anywhere.  This may or may not even require internet access all the time. Real-time access of training courses makes it convenient for learners to get trained on the go.

Training isn’t something that is just a ‘nice’ to have in an organization. It is a crucial, long-term investment and growth strategy of a company. Today, employees want more training in anticipation that it will be helpful to them to perform better in the workplace. But corporates do not always succeed in helping employees reach their full potential. About 74% of employees think so according to a research project conducted by Middlesex University’s Institute for Work Based Learning. Hence, eLearning for corporate training is the need of the hour for organizations to help retain and empower their employees.

So, how do you begin with creating a training course for your learners? Here are a few tips to consider when doing eLearning for the first time:

• Define your goals and terminal objectives – Before designing the course, ensure you are aware of the target audience and their current knowledge levels they come with. Clearly define what you want to convey to your learners—what they would ‘achieve’ by the end of the training.
• Conduct necessary research with the help of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) – Before developing the course, ensure you do a thorough research on the subject you have chosen. SMEs can be of great help here to ensure the courses are delivering the results you need.

• Keep the course short and divide the content into digestible chunks – Shorter duration courses are easier to digest for learners. Make sure the duration of the course is short. If the course duration is long, divide it into multiple modules for an effective learning experience.
• Use multimedia to make it engaging – Learners learn the most when they’re engaged. Use of multimedia and graphics can make your course interesting and interactive for the learners.
• Cite examples relevant to the organization – When learners come across examples from the same organization, they tend to absorb more from the course and can easily relate to the working environment. This will help learners apply their knowledge within the organization at ease.
• Keep your learners motivated – Rewards are one among the best ways to keep learners motivated. Rewards don’t have to be tangible items.  They can be simple things like affirmation and encouragement.
• Assess and evaluate performance – Testing the training is a crucial step. Assessing and evaluating the performance of your learners helps both, the learners and the trainers to understand the efficiency of the course/training and whether the pre-defined goals are achieved. Intersperse questions through the course to test as you go along. End with an assessment to ensure all terminal objectives were met.

So, once you have created the courses, how do you deploy them to your learners and calculate results?

Here’s when a Learning Management System comes into play!

An LMS is a software application that allows companies to assign, track, and monitor training materials. It acts as a supplement to classroom training. While there are many corporate organizations who have embraced LMSes, there are companies who are still unsure of bringing an LMS into their organization. One issue that prevents many organizations from making the leap to eLearning is the cost. However, some of the key benefits of having an LMS that we will discuss in our upcoming post will highlight the importance of having an LMS for corporate training and how it’s worth every investment!

Now that you know the things to consider for eLearning, are you willing to make this big switch? Connect with us to know how we can help you do this effortlessly!